Is COVID still prevalent on land tours in Alaska?

[Gray Lady]

I was just curious if COVID has continued to be a bugaboo on land tours - either pre-cruise or post-cruise. Hopefully it has calmed down some from the surge in June and early July. Does anyone know if Alaskan cruises still have a lot of quarantines cruisers? Just not a fun way to have a vacation!

[BoopTheSnoot]

Yes, it seems to be. We disembarked from an HA Whittier- Vancouver on Sunday and observed many, many coughing people all over the ship and on shore. Despite mandatory masking on ship and shore excursions, it was not 100% and I never noticed it being enforced. Alaska state health data shows they are still in a wave and their dashboard has the entire state in red. My DW tested positive the day after we returned home and we are isolating. We were fully faxed and double boosted, wore n95s virtually all of the times we could and even skipped some meals and shows  to try and lower exposure risks but it still found us anyway for the first time ever. We enjoyed the amazing sights and experiences of Alaska, and we’re hoping for a quick recovery, but I’m not sure when we’ll commit to a another cruise at this point. 

[CruiserBruce]

Coughing is not proof that Covid is widespread or even present. 

[Gray Lady]

1 hour ago, BoopTheSnoot said:

Yes, it seems to be. We disembarked from an HA Whittier- Vancouver on Sunday and observed many, many coughing people all over the ship and on shore. Despite mandatory masking on ship and shore excursions, it was not 100% and I never noticed it being enforced. Alaska state health data shows they are still in a wave and their dashboard has the entire state in red. My DW tested positive the day after we returned home and we are isolating. We were fully faxed and double boosted, wore n95s virtually all of the times we could and even skipped some meals and shows  to try and lower exposure risks but it still found us anyway for the first time ever. We enjoyed the amazing sights and experiences of Alaska, and we’re hoping for a quick recovery, but I’m not sure when we’ll commit to a another cruise at this point. 

Yes, that is how COVID found us on our land tour pre-cruise. We were not very sick, thank goodness. We did miss our cruise (first ever) and at this point are going to wait a year to see how things go. Best wishes and hope your DW has a speedy recovery.

[Gray Lady]

55 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Coughing is not proof that Covid is widespread or even present. 

True, but it does spread germs, no matter what type.

[Lowyfer]

Just came back from an Alaska cruise about a week ago on NCL.  Really did not see much COVID.

 

Very few people were masked on the cruise. Elevators were packed, port shuttles were packed, we did an excursion that was close quarters.

 

Neither of us picked up covid (unless it was entirely without symptoms) despite pretty much forgetting it existed.

 

Some places in Alaska might ask you to put on a mask when indoors but we did not run into any of them in our walking around.

 

 

[ptmbaa!]

Did an Alaska cruise from Vancouver on Koningsdam mid-July.  Came back with COVID....

[Gray Lady]

1 hour ago, ptmbaa! said:

Did an Alaska cruise from Vancouver on Koningsdam mid-July.  Came back with COVID....

I am so sorry. I hope it was a mild case and you are better now.

[BettyJJ]

We got back from our Alaskan Land Tour on Sunday.  We both had Covid.  We spoke to another couple who were on the same cruise, but had a different land portion.  They both came home with Covid as well.  

 

It seemed like a vast majority of people on the ship wore their masks indoors, the buses/vans/trains on land had very few people in masks (and were packed).

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by BettyJJ
corrected

[Gray Lady]

41 minutes ago, BettyJJ said:

We got back from our Alaskan Land Tour on Sunday.  We both had Covid.  We spoke to another couple who were on the same cruise, but had a different land portion.  They both came home with Covid as well.  

 

It seemed like a vast majority of people on the ship wore their masks indoors, the buses/vans/trains on land had very few people in masks (and were packed).

 

Things haven’t changed, apparently. At least you did your cruise first. Many sailing southward are still missing their cruise????

[Gray Lady]

52 minutes ago, BettyJJ said:

We got back from our Alaskan Land Tour on Sunday.  We both had Covid.  We spoke to another couple who were on the same cruise, but had a different land portion.  They both came home with Covid as well.  

 

It seemed like a vast majority of people on the ship wore their masks indoors, the buses/vans/trains on land had very few people in masks (and were packed).

 

Hope that you and your friends are all doing okay and it isn’t too serious. Speedy recoveries to all of you!

[cartervan]

We were on the Noordam for a Alaska Cruise/Land Tour at the end of June into July.  We enjoyed the cruise, and saw little evidence of COVID during that week. But on the 3rd day of the land tour my husband started getting cold symptoms at the McKinley Lodge, and just as a precaution got tested. POSITIVE!  We were sent back to our room where we stayed for three days. Then we got a call that we were being transferred to Anchorage.  We were shocked to find that there was an entire big bus full of people being sent to a hotel in Anchorage to quarantine!  Apparently many of them were just finishing up a land tour and getting tested before beginning the cruise portion of their trip. All of those people had tested positive that day or the day before!  I still didn't have any symptoms at that point, but being on that bus kind of sealed the deal for me I guess.  I tested positive the day we finally got home.

[Gray Lady]

1 hour ago, cartervan said:

We were on the Noordam for a Alaska Cruise/Land Tour at the end of June into July.  We enjoyed the cruise, and saw little evidence of COVID during that week. But on the 3rd day of the land tour my husband started getting cold symptoms at the McKinley Lodge, and just as a precaution got tested. POSITIVE!  We were sent back to our room where we stayed for three days. Then we got a call that we were being transferred to Anchorage.  We were shocked to find that there was an entire big bus full of people being sent to a hotel in Anchorage to quarantine!  Apparently many of them were just finishing up a land tour and getting tested before beginning the cruise portion of their trip. All of those people had tested positive that day or the day before!  I still didn't have any symptoms at that point, but being on that bus kind of sealed the deal for me I guess.  I tested positive the day we finally got home.

I am so sorry to hear that. My husband came down with it at the McKinley lodge, too. We think he picked it up in Fairbanks. The sad part is everyone who tests positive pre-cruise

has to miss their cruise. Hope you enjoyed (very tongue -in-cheek here) your wonderful quarantine time in Anchorage as we did. Hope that you both have speedy recoveries.

[BoopTheSnoot]

Update to my earlier post above: I also tested positive for Covid this week. Both my DW and I are doing well and taking Paxlovid so should be bouncing back quickly. We are enjoying our outdoor room and catching up on our reading backlog. I think it’s fair to say that Covid-19 is indeed still just as prevalent in Alaska as most other places these days. Stay safe everyone. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

I think it’s still raging here unfortunately. We had breakfast at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage yesterday and heard tons of coughing as well as some conversation about testing positive. I really really really hope those people were either done quarantining or were talking about others who were not present because the people talking were sitting right in the middle of everyone. I hope it settles down soon, so everyone can enjoy seeing this beautiful state!